I love this world!
But lately it has seemed to me to be a translucent, dangling mirage!
I see the oak tree, yes.
But I also see the acorn from whence it came-
as it blows across a valley to its new home
here
with me.
And even still!
I see the empty patch of land where the tree used to be.
All of its stems and branches crumbled
into the dirt I stand on.
Things must be viewed in their entirety.
Or else one is looking yet not seeing.
And so this tree
Now
floats in my vision.
And I see it dangling in the impermanent environment we call LIFE
.Just like me.
Coming in to existence just as much as it is leaving.
So
I giggle and climb on up to the top to die with it.
"The difference between soul and Spirit is this: The Spirit is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new omnipresent Joy; the soul is the individualized reflection of ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Joy, confined within the body of each and every being.
Worldly men do not know what the soul is, or how it comes into the physical body, and then, after a short sojourn, to what destiny it slips away. Trillions of men have mysteriously come on earth and just as mysteriously departed. That is why people in general cannot but wonder if the soul undergoes extinction along with the destruction of the body.
The following analogy gives an illustration of the nature and immortality of the soul. (No analogies are perfect in expressing absolute verities, but they do help the mind to image abstract concepts.) The moon is reflected in a cup containing water; the cup is broken and the water runs out; where does the reflection of the moon go? The reflection of the moon may be said to have returned to its inseverable identity in the moon itself. If another cup of water is placed under the moon, another reflection of the moon would be reincarnated!"
-Paramahansa Yogananda
But lately it has seemed to me to be a translucent, dangling mirage!
I see the oak tree, yes.
But I also see the acorn from whence it came-
as it blows across a valley to its new home
here
with me.
And even still!
I see the empty patch of land where the tree used to be.
All of its stems and branches crumbled
into the dirt I stand on.
Things must be viewed in their entirety.
Or else one is looking yet not seeing.
And so this tree
Now
floats in my vision.
And I see it dangling in the impermanent environment we call LIFE
.Just like me.
Coming in to existence just as much as it is leaving.
So
I giggle and climb on up to the top to die with it.
"The difference between soul and Spirit is this: The Spirit is ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new omnipresent Joy; the soul is the individualized reflection of ever-existing, ever-conscious, ever-new Joy, confined within the body of each and every being.
Worldly men do not know what the soul is, or how it comes into the physical body, and then, after a short sojourn, to what destiny it slips away. Trillions of men have mysteriously come on earth and just as mysteriously departed. That is why people in general cannot but wonder if the soul undergoes extinction along with the destruction of the body.
The following analogy gives an illustration of the nature and immortality of the soul. (No analogies are perfect in expressing absolute verities, but they do help the mind to image abstract concepts.) The moon is reflected in a cup containing water; the cup is broken and the water runs out; where does the reflection of the moon go? The reflection of the moon may be said to have returned to its inseverable identity in the moon itself. If another cup of water is placed under the moon, another reflection of the moon would be reincarnated!"
-Paramahansa Yogananda
